REGION — Memory and sorrow can be transformed into something remarkable.

During and after the holiday season, we are often reminded that for some families, this can be a very difficult time, as it opens a floodgate of grief for their loved ones.

Such is the case for one of our local families, the Van Gorder family. They lost their beautiful daughter, Vanessa, during the Christmas season eight years ago.

Through this loss and their everlasting love for Vanessa, this amazing family chose to keep Vanessa’s incredible spirit alive. They chose to celebrate her life and her love for her family and everyone around her, her passion for the outdoors—especially the water—her infectious laughter and her unending positive outlook.  

The Vanessa Joy Van Gorder Memorial Scholarship fund was established in 2015 at the Delaware Highlands Conservancy. It provides scholarships for high school seniors who are pursuing a career in education or environmental stewardship.

Those seniors should be from school districts bordering the Upper Delaware River in New York and Pennsylvania.

The annual Fall Music Festival was founded to try to help our friends cope with sorrow, to gather strength from the memories, and to honor our lost loved ones.

The festival stands, with all of our hearts, with the Van Gorder family through this most difficult time.

“To me personally, the Fall Music Festival is and always will be about helping, giving and sharing the human spirit,” said Jamie Rutherford, the founder of the Fall Music Festival.

The festival is honored to make a $2,000 contribution toward Vanessa’s scholarship fund, to continue helping future generations of community leaders.

In loving memory of Vanessa, we hope that you are inspired to live, love and laugh as strongly and as passionately as she did.

And remember this quote from poet Amanda Bradley: “Those we love are never really lost to us—we feel them in so many special ways—through friends they always cared about and dreams they left behind, in beauty that they added to our days... in words of wisdom we still carry with us and memories that never will be gone... Those we love are never really lost to us—For everywhere their special love lives on.”

For more information on the Vanessa Joy Van Gorder Memorial Scholarship fund, visit delawarehighlands.org/learn/scholarships/.

Follow this link for a glimpse of Vanessa’s joy in action, as seen through the eyes of her mom, Beth. https://fb.watch/hCStYIdK6B/?mibextid=v7YzmG